Well there’s something to be said about games that are fun. I mean, games go for different things. Some games try to whoo you with fancy-pants graphics. Others try to engage you with emotional storytelling. I love those kinda games. I also love shooting stuff and watching things blow up. You see, sometimes I feel like the indie scene lacks games that are about the action and explosions. Sometimes you just want to shoot a robot in the face. Thankfully, Assault Android Cactus had me covered!
Assault Android Cactus by the Australia-based Witch Beam Games is a twin-stick arena shooter with a whole bunch of crazy stuff going on. I know thats awkwardly non-descriptive, but seriously there’s so much crazy stuff in this game that is quite honestly the best way I could describe it. Okay fine, I’ll try! Batteries, guns, laser beams, robots, flamethrowers, boss battles, more robots, multiplayer, shifting environments, even more robots, special abilities, overheating, combos and epic high scores. There, you happy now? The only thing I couldn’t figure out was were the ‘cactus’ part comes in.
The game revolves around one thing; combat. You are thrust into various arenas with robots eagerly awaiting the opportunity to blast you into pieces. The goal is simple. Blast every damn robot into pieces while chaining combos together to achieve the highest possible score. Each Android (playable character) has a unique skillset that caters to different gamer play styles. If you like machine guns and flamethrowers, Cactus might be the android for you as she is packin’ both. Personally, I enjoyed playing as the redhead Holly. Her homing-lasers made it easy for me to run around screaming while blindly shooting in all directions. Her cannonball secondary shot also helps to clear a path so I could run into said path running and screaming.
While I only played solo for the purpose of this preview, I have already told my friends that we must get a coop session of Assault Android Cactus going. I really think that this game would be an absolutely awesome experience with local coop. The fast-paced gameplay and the blast’em up style would make for a great coop game with you and your closest pals. Oh, and I did mention the environments yet? They literally change the entire time. Honestly, I would try to explain how that works but you’re better off watching the trailer below and seeing it for yourself.
Although the game is still in development, it already feels like a complete package. I can’t wait to get my hands on the final release.